What Do Consumers Think of the iPhone Map App?

Much has been reported in the media about the iPhone Map App that Apple rolled out with the release of iOS6. The early reporting was anecdotal, apocalyptic or often just plain wrong but very little of it addressed the question of what consumers thought of Apple’s new Map app.

What do they think? It would seem for most of them the iPhone Map App is a non issue.

To answer this question I created a survey in Google Consumer Surveys tool that ran from Friday October 5th through Sunday October 7th. The recent survey indicates that over half of current users of the new app were not affected at all by the app and over 91% fell in the “not going to jump off the Empire State Building” cohort. 74% were satisfied or perhaps just didn’t notice. Only 3.2% indicated that the Map App would definitely prevent them from buying another iPhone in the future.

(click to view larger)

When you dig into the numbers a bit you can see some other interesting tidbits: Females were less disaffected by the product than males, folks older under 55 were more likely to indicate that they were happy and those over 55 were more likely to indicate that they were never going to buy another iPhone (ouch). Urban users were happier than rural one.

Won’t buy another iPhone response by Age:

Won’t buy another iPhone response by geography:

Methodology:Google’s Survey tool attempts to create a sample that is representative of the adult population in the country that you choose. Google noted that in this small (200 answers) of a survey that the primary level results are statistically significant. When you get into the secondary level like age, sex and geography differences the sample size is probably too small to take away any reliable conclusions. When possible, results are weighted by inferred gender, age and geography to make the sample as representative as possible of the US Internet population.

The survey was comprised of two questions that were presented to readers on the following types of sites Arts & Entertainment: 32.5%, News: 31.0%, Reference: 26.5%, Other: 10.0%. The publishers that carry the microsurvey share in the revenue. The first question, a qualifying question, asked whether your iPhone has iOS6. There were 1380 responses to that question of which 256 (18.6%) said that they did have iOS6 and 200 went on to the final question. To read more about Google’s research on the accuracy of these surveys you can read this white paper.

Discussion:
All too often the tech world is out of touch with the mainstream of consumers. I am sure that Google is happy to see David Pogue write a (puff?) piece detailing specific searches and criticizing iPhone Maps and lauding Google Maps but the real question is: how does Apple’s Map change affect real people in the real world.

As David Mihm noted to me in discussions: I think this survey speaks to a common issue in the tech community–namely, our insularity. Seems like EVERY innovation in the tech industry, whether it’s the Facebook timeline, Twitter’s API change, or Apple Maps’ launch is quickly piled on by industry insiders, while the general public is largely oblivious or even dismissive of the supposed gravity of the change.

Andrew Shotland noted “my mother has iPhone 4 and has not yet updated to iOS6. I don’t think this was because of the maps issue – more just a lack of tech savviness – but she did mention that maps thing and that she’s glad she has Google maps on her phone. So it’s possible that iOS6 adoption will slow down for a bit, but the pace will go from blistering to merely torrid. In only a couple of weeks iOS6 has become the #5 biggest Operating System across all of my clients. It’s quite possible that by Xmas, it will overtake all of Android as the #4 OS. And at some point my mom will upgrade, particularly as the headlines die down and she wants some app that requires iOS6“.

I had interviewed 6 iPhone users before embarking on this survey and found that very few cared about Maps and those that did found the new product to be quite satisfactory.

It would appear from these results that most users have little or no opinion about the change and that the level of dissatisfaction is very low. Despite the many, many negative reports in the press, it would seem that most users will not become less loyal or use the iPhone any less because of the mapping app. That in and of itself raises a number of questions: Are Maps less important to the average users than we assume? Are usage patterns such that most people just don’t notice?

Questions for the Future: Due to the small size and the limited number of questions asked, the survey raised as a number of questions for future exploration.

First and foremost is just how much does the average iPhone user access a Map app and how much do they pay attention to any quality issues. What percentage of users rely on it daily, weekly, monthly or less? Do they do mostly directional and recovery searches or do they do a significant number of discovery searches? Or is that behavior left to other apps?

The secondary results, due to the small sample size, also raised interesting questions. Is the negative rural response due to poorer quality of the Map app in the hinterlands? Are the results indicating greater male dissastisfaction an artifact or a reality?

Conclusion: Despite the noise in our world, in the real world people are not very affected by this change on the iPhone. Its not going to slow down new purchases nor upgrades in any significant way. It might become a bigger problem in the future but it would appear that Apple has time to deal with the issues and to achieve greater parity with Google Maps.

If you would like to examine the survey and explore some of the demographic options you may do so here.

Please consider leaving a comment as your input will help me (& everyone else) better understand and learn about local.

29 thoughts on “What Do Consumers Think of the iPhone Map App?”

Mike, as you said the sample is way too small to draw any final conclusions from the results. However, I wanted to point out to something that you didn’t mention – the survey covers only the United States and the whole other world has been left out. If we trust this a little outdated stats this is just about a third of the user base of any iOS device. Apple has very obviously focused on this market, though (just look at who their map data partners are and what data they cater), so it’s to be assumed that the app will be much, MUCH more useful in the US than anywhere else around the world. If you look at this site: The Amazing iOS 6 Maps, you will see that the majority of the examples that contain very serious mistakes (such as whole regions, together with their basic geography being completely unmapped) are for places outside the US, some of which are in very highly populated and “tech-savvy” locales where the user base is potentially very significant. In Singapore, for instance, where the penetration of iPhone is reportedly the highest in the world, the app is practically unusable. There are whole neighborhoods that cannot be discovered, living areas are scarcely mapped, etc. In many of the countries around the world the best mapping app has always been Google Maps and there are usually not even close substitutes. How does Apple cater to these users with iOS6 and Apple Maps? Have they even made any good effort to cater to them?

According to Google survey the sample size was big enough to be statistically significant at the top level. Only when looking at the second level results (age, sex, geography etc) is the sample too small to have any confidence in the results. Although it likely points directionally at things that need to be explored.

But yes it does only address the US population as to their satisfaction level. My guess is that in Europe where TeleAtlas has a strong presence and in China, where there are no other good mobile Maps, you would find similar or even higher satisfaction levels.

Remember though this survey is looking at consumer satisfaction NOT Map quality. I took this approach not to vindicate an immature product but to point out that most pundits view the world through a very narrow lens.

Even in places like Singapore where the quality, as you note stinks, I think you would find that most users would not want to give up their iPhone because the Map is bad. But I leave that survey to you. 🙂

I couldn’t understand all the ‘loud’ complaining about the new map either. I am in Canada (in Mexico for the winter) and I find the map (iPhone 4 iOS6) app just fine. I don’t think it’s as good as the Google version in some ways… but it’s not the end of the world. I can always d/l the google app if I want to use it instead.

Interesting survey and I’m not surprised at all by the results. I have a hard time believing someone would not buy a phone because of one specific app (albeit a fairly important app). iPhone users can still access Google Maps via the Internet. Furthermore, you don’t think Google is working hard to get an app out? My guess is we’ll see a Google Map app within 6-9 months.

@Andy
Well the app does suck some but its value to users as Travis and the survey points out does not raise to the level of armageddon that the hyperbole indicated. Its not as good as it should be but its better than it could have been. Mapping is hard and Apple, I think, knows this. As such they have their hands full and need to make significant strides if they want to harvest all the benefits of controlling the pre installed Map app.

@Travis
If Google takes that long to produce a product they will have lost one of the biggest opportunities ever handed to them.

The Google Maps via the internet is annoyingly bad. While the data is good, it is flakey and uncooperative and not a viable second choice unless you are willing to put up with a terrible experience. Mapquest on the other hand has offered a decent, free turn by turn iPhone mapping product for several years. It is also amazing to me that they are not making more noise about their product.

Apple maps is great & sucks at the same time. If I’m using it in Toronto, its great with road closures, traffic delays, etc. (which is better than google maps was!) The in app search actually works better than google too, possibly because of Yelp & Open Table.

If I’m at home (45 minutes from GTA). Apple maps is black and white, and small cities around me, don’t even exist.

I have hope that Apple will catch up in time, they just should’ve released it as a Beta, like they did with Siri. Everyone had high expectations, especially after the keynote.

The number of responses is pretty small, but nonetheless I think older people in rural areas may never buy another iPhone but it has nothing to do with the Maps App. They are being literal. This phone will last them until they die.

In Singapore, for instance, where the penetration of iPhone is reportedly the highest in the world, the app is practically unusable. There are whole neighborhoods that cannot be discovered, living areas are scarcely mapped, etc.

Other commenters have brought up a couple of the points I had meant to make, but I have a question on the survey.

You say that almost 1400 users responded to the question “Does your iPhone have iOS 6?” Does that mean you made sure that all of those 1400 users even had iPhones to begin with?

If so, that’s a lot of users who either don’t know what version they have, or have not updated to iOS6. If not, you’re missing the opportunity to find out if people have avoided the iOS6 update, and if Maps was a reason for that.

I understand that you made sure the respondents had iOS6. My question pertains to the lead-in to that, and the 1380 who were asked if their iPhones had iOS6. Are we to assume that based on your survey, all 1380 of those respondents had an iPhone, but 1124 of those respondents either didn’t now what version they had, or had not updated?

ChangeWave also asked respondents running iOS 6 if they had experienced problems with Apple Maps, and the survey found that the new mapping software has not been a major issue for users. Among those polled, 90 percent reported “no problem at all,” while 3 percent said iOS 6 Maps are a “very big problem,” while 6 percent said the issue is “somewhat of a problem.”

I did not explore the methodology but it is interesting that the numbers so closely mirror the ones in the survey that I did.